Trump to Send Kellogg to Europe for Ukraine Recovery Conference This Week
US President Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg is planning to travel to Rome this week to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and to attend the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2025 (URC), a high-stakes event dedicated to the reconstruction of Ukraine during and after the war with Russia, Kyiv Post’s Washington correspondent was informed by two sources familiar with the matter.
Kellogg will be a part of the US delegation at the conference, which will be hosted by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on July 10 and 11.
President Zelensky, along with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and other world leaders are slated to attend the conference.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether Kellogg will be joined by any other Trump cabinet member at the forum. The State Department and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the full US delegation at the URC and Trump envoy’s planned trip.
The annual series of high-level URCs – previously held in Lugano (2022), London (2023) and Berlin (2024) – aims to continue the global mobilization to support the reconstruction and modernization of the war-torn country, while also exploring the current economic, political and security landscape in Ukraine, assessing the key challenges.
The conference will bring together government officials, international organizations, financial institutions, business leaders, municipalities and other stakeholders to discuss how policy, business and international engagement can shape a sustainable reconstruction, organizers told Kyiv Post.
Several US-based organizations, including Atlantic Council think-tank, as well as Razom, a Washington-based organization that provides humanitarian aid to the war-torn country, will also take part in this year’s event.
“While the fighting sadly still continues in Ukraine and diplomatic efforts to end Russia’s war seem stalled, major efforts remain underway for work on Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction,” Shelby Magid, Deputy Director at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, told Kyiv Post.
“The URC is an important forum to take stock of these initiatives and spur further commitments to not only assist in building a secure and sustainable future for Ukraine but to make it mutually beneficial for all partners involved, for example through the recently announced U.S.-Ukraine co-production of drones,” she emphasized.
According to Magid, the Trump Administration has prioritized such an approach, as seen with the signing of the minerals deal and creation of the joint investment fund for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
Trump’s Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent said in April that the minerals deal “signals clearly to Russia that the Trump Administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine over the long term.”
To keep this commitment and ensure Ukraine can ultimately prosper, “sustained high-level engagement on Ukraine’s recovery is critical for both Ukraine’s success and American economic and security interests,” Magid said.
Doug Klain, a policy analyst at Razom, agrees. “I think it matters that the world sees the US at URC, that Ukrainians understand Americans still stand with them, even though some in the Trump administration are trying to turn America’s back on Ukraine,” he told Kyiv Post.
“We’ve always known that the private sector and civil society would play a leading role in Ukraine’s recovery, but without continued US leadership today, the Russians will have a greater chance to stop that recovery from happening,” he said.
Razom will be hosting a series of side events during USC, to bring together officials from Ukraine, the rest of Europe, and hopefully the United States to “keep the work going on how to make sure Ukraine succeeds,” as Klain put it.
He elaborated: “For example we’re hosting an event on investing in Ukraine’s defense industry, because there really are significant benefits to enabling Ukrainians to guarantee their own security while also learning from the many ways they’ve figured out how to fight modern wars.”
When it comes to innovation, the analyst assesses that Ukrainians are “miles ahead and we’re seeing other countries like Denmark get in on the ground floor by investing now.”
“If Americans don’t want to be left behind, it’s worth it for the US to start building with and learning from Ukraine,” he said. “Otherwise, we won’t be ready for the wars of tomorrow.”
Kellogg’s trip also comes just days after the Pentagon paused the delivery of some of Ukraine’s most in-demand equipment and supplies.
Klain told Kyiv Post that the “absolute mess” created by the Pentagon trying to unilaterally end Ukraine aid and hand a win to Russia “means there’s real pressure on the US to bring something meaningful to the table.”
“The Ukraine Recovery Conference hasn’t always been a news-making event, but there’s a serious incentive for the Trump administration to get this right and actually commit to helping Ukraine rather than surrender to Putin,” he concluded.
Speaking to reporters Sunday afternoon, Trump stated that he is “helping Ukraine a lot” in a war that “should have never happened.”
Asked why he didn’t support Ukraine in the same way he does Israel, Trump responded: “I am helping Ukraine. I’m helping them a lot. It’s a war that should have never happened. It’s a war that should never have started.”
Source: Alex Raufoglu